The interior of Coche is largely a flat plain of salt flats, baking in the sun. Salt has been harvested here since pre-colonial times — Coche means "deer" in the Cumanagoto language and was a recognised salt source long before the Spanish arrived. The white pans, in places vast and oddly beautiful, are still worked on a small scale and provide much of eastern Venezuela's table salt.
A drive across the island gives you the salt flats on either side of the road. The light at sunrise and late afternoon is striking — the flats turn pink and lavender as the sun gets low. Bring water; there is no shade.